Improvement in processes of dressing deer-skins



UNITED STATES PATENT Demon SAMUEL BLANGIIA'RD, an, OFASHLAND, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

IMPROVEMENT IN PROCESSES OF DRESSING DEER-SKINS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 133,140, dated November 19, 1872.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL BLANGHARD, Jr., of Ashland, of the county of Grafton, of the State of New Hampshire, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Process of Dressing Deer-Skins; and I do hereby declare the same to be fully described as follows:

On account of the nature of deer-skins, and the difficulty of getting the oleaginous dressing to properly penetrate the skin, it has been customary to effect the dressing process during summer, when awarm and even temperature could be obtained. By my process such skins may be dressed during the winter or cold season, as well as during other seasons.

I apply the dressing material to the skin by a fulling-mill,- such dressing material being fish-oil and while so applying it I, by means of pipes heated by steam, keep the apartment in which the falling-mill may be at the proper temperature-that is, at aboutlOO Fahrenheit, varying the same as occasion may require. The skins are next to be suspended in the apartment in order for the dressing to be exposed to the necessary atmospheric action and heat for the dressing to ferment, as leather-dressers term the change which it next undergoes or should be subjected to. In carrying out this part of the process I keep the apartment heated by the steam-pipes; and, in order to prevent the heat from drying the skin, so as to retard the dressing process, I let steam into the apartment in sufficient quantity from time to time.

It usually requires about seven days to effeet the dressing process, during which time the skin has to be milled twenty times or thereabout, and hung up and subjected to the action of the heat and steam; this latter part of the process-that is, the suspending of the skin and subjecting it to the action of the heat and steam-being accomplished after each milling of it, or as occasion may require.

.After the skin has been thus treated it has to be cleansedthat is to say, it is to be put into a suitable vessel containing an alkaline solution, and then be beaten and worked over, the liquor being kept hot by means of steam duly introduced into it by a steam coil or otherwise. Next, the skin is to be removed from the alkaline liquor, and be dried, after which it may be colored and bufled.

By my improvement the skins are not only dressed thoroughly and generally quicker, but easier, and may be used immediately after being dressed. The improvement is specially advantageous to glove-makers, as it saves the necessity of drying the skins in summer, and keeping them over into the winter season, the time when gloves are usually made.

What I claim as my invention is- The employment ofsteam-heat and steam, in the manner substantially as set forth, in the process of applying the dressing to the skin, and in the fermenting of such dressing, all being as explained.

SAML. BLANCHARD, J R.

Witnesses:

It. H. EDDY, J. R. SNow. 

